Why Does A Loving God Allow Suffering? Series

Why love? At root, it’s because, as I John 4:16 tells us, “God is love.” According to God, love is the most important thing (29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: 30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. 31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.Mark 12:29-31), and it’s worth the risks of freedom.

III. Why does God allow suffering? Because good comes from it

Suffering is never fun, but it can be a good thing for us, especially for those who love God and are willing to be conformed to Christlikeness (28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. 29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. Rom. 8:28-30).

Far from being something that should slice away at our hold on God, suffering is something that ought to strengthen our grip and convince us that he is trustworthy, even when life scams us. Here are 5 reasons why suffering points us to God.

1. If we never suffered, we would never hate evil. Without suffering, people could do as much evil as they wanted, but would never suffer the consequences. No one would ever see the ugliness of evil, so no one would ever actually hate evil.

2. If we never suffered, we would never appreciate goodness. Without suffering, everything good that happened to us, we would just expect. We would never thank God for the blessings he gives us because we would figure that’s just the way it’s supposed to be. Gratitude, a fuel for so much virtue, would have trouble taking root within us.

3. If we never suffered, we would never need God. We would never feel the need to have God in our lives. We would never need to look up and seek him, to get right with Him. We would remain blissfully but hopelessly lost.

4. If we never suffered, we would never hope for heaven. We would never hope for the day that God would come and rescue us. Rather, we would naturally hope to stay on earth, content with an empty and self-absorbed “life.”

5. If we never suffered, we would never grow. How do you become a truly loving person? Not by being around people who are always lovable. Similarly, you grow in courage only through having to face fear. You grow in patience only through being in frustrating situations. You grow in joy through going through tough circumstances. You grow in self-control through being tempted. You grow in peace when you’ve had your world go crazy. You grow in grace through experiencing brokenness.

Most people play the movie up to the pain and then say, “Must be a bad thing.” Christians, however, play the movie past the pain. How will God use this suffering for my good and for his glory? We also remember that it is only temporary.

“But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.” - 1 Peter 5:10